'Flora the Red Menace'
By Don Shirley
If the title weren’t taken, this likable little show might be called Commie Girl. In Depression-era New York, ambitious fashion illustrator Flora (Eden Espinosa) falls for a stammering member of the Party (Manoel Felciano) and decides to join it herself, more or less as a romantic gesture, leading to complications galore. Based on a novel by Lester Atwell, this 1965 musical was the Broadway calling card for the music/lyrics team of John Kander and Fred Ebb. David Thompson refreshed the book in 1987, imagining it as a Federal Theatre Project show with a cast of nine. Susan Dietz produced it at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1990; now she’s producing it again in her new job at Reprise. Philip Himberg’s staging manages to transcend the creakier elements and achieves a winsome blend of social commentary and light comedy. The score is most famous for the gorgeous cabaret standard “A Quiet Thing,” which feels oddly misplaced in the show’s context, but no matter – this is the kind of revival that justifies Reprise.
Freud Playhouse, MacGowan Hall, UCLA, Westwood, (310) 825-2101. Reprise.org. Thur.-Fri. at 8 p.m.; Sat. at 2 p.m. & 8 p.m.; Sun. at 2 p.m. & 7 p.m. Closes May 18.
Published: 05/14/2008
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